Los Angeles Lakers

The Thunder has fallen a full four games behind Denver in the division thanks to the Lakers, who won in OKC on Thursday night.

Los Angeles fell behind by as many as 17 but came back to force overtime and then pull away to win by 10. Brandon Ingram had a career-high 11 assists; Lonzo Ball had 10 himself and the Lakers overcame 23 turnovers by hitting 19-of-40 threes.

A developing story is the center position, which JaVale McGee was playing so well for most of the season, when LeBron James was in the lineup. He’s slowly becoming the number three option behind Tyson Chandler, who started on Thursday, and Ivica Zubac, who played the most minutes (28).

Zubac went 12-for-14 for 28 points and 12 rebounds. He supposedly has his best chemistry with Rajon Rondo, who is still out. Suddenly, the Lakers look like they are ready to take off once Rondo and James return, just a week after losing to Cleveland.

They have won two in a row and are suddenly just 5–7 without James, who is supposedly set to return to practice next week, though a timetable for his return to the game hasn’t been set straight yet, at least not publicly.

Houston Rockets

Houston got two days off after that 145–142 devastating home loss to Brooklyn at the Toyota Center. The Nets came back from the dead at the end of regulation and in overtime to stun the Rockets, who have fallen behind the Spurs by percentage points in the Southwest Division.

The Rockets were hoping to finally get some good news on the injury front after recently losing Clint Capela for what could be six weeks. Eric Gordon made his return after missing eight games but left early with a knee injury. He’s downplayed the injury to the media but there hasn’t been an official word on his status moving forward.

You get the sense that the Rockets can’t survive this short-handed for much longer. Chris Paul is supposed to be back at the end of the month but, like I said, Capela is a while off. The Gordon injury is horrible news but, somehow, expected. Gordon has had that type of career.

They’ve got just six more games, including this one, between now and the end of the month. If Harden can hold things together until then and CP3 comes back and plays better than he did before he went down, Houston can hang with the Spurs in the division. Things are getting iffy, though.

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